THE WOODPECKER. 
133 
A few more notes may be appended about the British Picidce. The Greater 
Spotted Woodpecker is a regular migrant to the east coast. The Green Woodpecker 
is seldom, if ever, seen in the Isle of Wight. The former bird is believed by Mr. 
Harvie Brown to be gradually dying out in Scotland, owing to the destruction of 
old birch-trees, and the incursions of sparrows and starlings to take possession of the 
holes in which it was formerly wont to breed. A very singular notice of this bird’s 
migration occurred in Shetland, with Mr. Saxby’s account of which our chapter may 
fitly end :— 
“ Many years ago, a bird to which the name Norway Woodpecker was vaguely 
applied was shot in the garden at Halligarth, but as the specimen was destroyed, and 
no notes as to its appearance were taken, the species was unascertained until lately, 
when, on my showing a Great Spotted Woodpecker ( P. major) to the captor, he 
instantly remarked that it was exactly like the one above mentioned. Although this 
species had frequently been taken in Orkney, it was not ascertained to have occurred 
in Shetland until September, 1861, when a steady breeze from the south-east brought 
a large flock of these strange visitors. I saw the first at Halligarth on the third of 
the month, and during the next three weeks great numbers were seen and captured in 
most parts of the Orkney and Shetland Islands. As the birds were doing great damage 
in the garden, I shot several ; but it is remarkable that among these, and also among 
the numerous specimens brought me from various quarters, there was not one female, 
and that, with a single exception, all were birds of the year. The first two presented 
nothing unusual in appearance; but, in taking a third into my hand, I at once 
remarked the worn appearance of the bill, tail, and claws. I immediately suspected 
that this was caused by the bird having been compelled, in the scarcity of trees, 
to seek its food among stones and rocks; and upon opening the stomach my 
suspicions were confirmed by the discovery, among other insects, of several small 
beetles which are found only upon the hills” (Saxby’s “Birds of Shetland,” p. 139). 
